Return With Honor!

The Smith Siblings

More from the Smith Baptism

Saying Good Bye to Fortunat

Dear Family,

Well this is the last weekly email I'll be sending out. How thankful I have been to serve here in the Nation's Capital. Soon to think it will all be memories. There will be things I miss, other not so much. I'm thankful for a companion who helped pushed me to the end, to keep me working and busy. But most importantly I'm thankful for the relationship with my Heavenly Father I have been able to build. He has helped me through the rough times, rejoiced with me through the happy times. 

Rejoicing moment, this weekend the Stewart kids got baptized. To think just a few months ago as we taught their mother, they were all hiding in their rooms. Now saying goodbye to them as members of the church. The ward has been fantastic at helping us fellowship people into the gospel. I cannot think of a Sunday where we had someone there and no one talked to them. Members saw a new face and made it a familiar one. They truly showed their love and support at the baptism. I had the honor of baptizing Marcus and Andre (A story all within itself). Elder Chamberlain had the pleasure to baptize Kayla and Kamille. There is this vigor spreading through the ward with missionary work. 

Hard Moment, Boy do I not enjoy saying goodbye to people. This last week has been a rollercoaster of emotions, excitement, peace, sadness, happiness and so many others. I got to say goodbye to the Perez family, the Harris family, the Stewart/Middleton family, Fortunat, the Smiths, and so many others. Every time fighting back tears as I bid them a farewell. Truly I have come to love the people out here, the members, investigators, people on the street, those who oppress, and my companions. 

How lucky we have been to have a House of the Lord so close with a visitor Center. The spirit who leads the elect to this gospel, testifies of truth, comforts us when needed. I have enjoyed being able to take our investigators to the V.C. To allow them to feel of the sacred spirit that is there. I am thankful for the opportunity I had to see Gildas get sealed to his wife for time and eternity. For the opportunities we had to go and attend sessions there. The push of the mission to get recent converts to the temple.

This gospel is true. It is for everyone. I love how Nephi puts it in 2 Nephi 26:33, "33 For none of these iniquities come of the Lord; for he doeth that which is good among the children of men; and he doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children of men; and he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile." Being here in the melting pot of the world, never knowing who could answer the next door you knock on. I've seen it affect people from all around the globe. Anywhere from England, to Congo, to Bangladesh, to Brazil, to Central America, to Gabon, to Nigeria. 

I know that this is God's church once again established on the earth. That we can be cleansed of sin through the atonement of Jesus Christ, and that the Lord has a plan for each one of us. I am thankful for these two years that I've had out here and hope to continue on the path of Discipleship.

Love,

Elder Bentley

Last Full Week in the Mission

District Activity at Fort Washington

Me and Brother Williams

Dear Family!

This has been a pretty great week! It all will come creeping to a close, but there's thing that need to get done by then!! For this week just a few highlights.

Tuesday evening we were able to go and meet with the Agwu family! We really have been cranking out these new member lessons to Ume and Ugo. Ume will have surgery here soon so we want to make sure he gets completed before then. On Sunday he came walking in fifteen minutes to start and sat down with the deacons to pass the Sacrament! That was very exciting to see that. We will get to go teach them potentially one last time before I have to go.

Wednesday morning we started the day off down by Vielka's home contacting. The lesson that we had with them was about prayer and the importance of finding out for themselves if it's true. Her two kids are completely on board for baptism, but we can't let them continue until she finds out for herself that it's true. We were a bit disappointed when she didn't show up to church on Sunday. But we will give her a few more chances.

Wednesday evening we got to meet with Keysa and her kids. We have been scrambling to get them taught so they all can get baptized this coming Saturday. We taught the Plan of Salvation to them and after they only have the commandments. It's fantastic when you ask for someone to say the prayer and they all want to say it. We also dropped in Thursday evening to start the commandments. The two girls are completely taught and the boys have one more lesson. Things are looking up for them! They came on Sunday again, I think it makes 9 weeks consecutive since we knocked on their door. What a blessing this family has been! Keysa is interacting with the Ward, she made food for the Ward linger-longer and stayed to participate.

Friday evening we got to go to the Smith's home for a new member lesson for Melissa. They are one of the families that are going to be hard to say goodbye to. Sister Smith and her mom made us some fish and chips which were delicious! But since her mom is an older British lady she used a lot of words I had no idea what they were. One for example was fly tipping. But we had a great time with them and taught Melissa the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Saturday I went on exchange with the Zone leaders and got to go up into Anacostia. They say it's one of the scariest areas on the mission, but it just reminded me of Brooklyn Park. We had a fantastic day up there. I got to be with Elder George, who's trainer's trainer was my trainee! We ran into a couple of crazy people while we were there, but had a day full of teaching. They also have quite the meetinghouse. The church purchased it from a different religion and made it feel like an lds meeting house. The baptismal font though is up behind the pulpit in the Chapel so that's different.

I hope everyone had a fantastic week! Sorry it's a bit shorter, we are headed into D.C. For my last trip!

Love,

Elder Bentley 

Happy Pioneer Day!

After our District Meeting

We saw Sheryl

Keysa's Baptism

Dear Family!

It's been a pretty busy week for us, it's nice to stay busy so I can keep my thoughts centered on the work! The week ended just the way we had hoped and are looking forward to these next two weeks.

Tuesday was completely occupied by our Zone Conference. They had it up at the D.C. stake center which was a good hour or so drive depending on traffic, let's just say it's on the complete opposite side of D.C. You thought traffic at home was bad? Oh it's a night mare out here. But we had a fantastic conference. The focus was on the Book of Mormon and the Atonement. It was very impressed with Sister Johnson's ability to communicate her message. After she invited us all to repent, we have a few more things to work on so we can receive more blessings. That night but the time we got out, it was definitely dinner time. We went to &Pizza which I'll have to show you if we ever come back out. It's a build your own personal pizza place. Quite tasty and delicious!

Wednesday evening Keysa had her baptismal interview. President Johnson played a pretty mean joke on us, but he got us. Keysa passed with flying colors, but he made us think for a few minutes she had completely failed. Oh how it's great to have President Johnson as our mission President. He truly was called to help out this area and this mission. He can lay down the law, but still had a loving, kind, and cheerful heart! During the interview we taught her kids so that they can prepare for their own baptisms the 5th of August!

Thursday I was on exchange with Elder Criddle down in White Plains. It was quite the exchange not having the key to the apartment and everything that happened. But it was nice to catch up and to talk about the old time up in Brooklyn Park. But we are both grateful to be out of that area. We went out and hit the pavement to find some new people to teach. It was so hot that day, high 90's with the heat index in the 100's thanks to the humidity.

Friday was our temple day. We got to go do a session up at the temple. It has been a blessing to have a temple in our mission because it brings blessings. We were able to meet with Keysa one last time before her baptism that evening. She had us over for some dinner and we taught her and the kids the Laws and Ordinances. Her sister was there in attendance for it and it's starting to spark some curiosity. We talked about what needed to be finished for her baptism and how we were looking forward to having it!

Saturday was a long day. We were at the church bright and early so we could fill up the baptismal font with hot water. It takes quite some time to get it there so we had to spend time turning it off and on. Keysa arrived with all her kids and we got her ready. To our surprise there was a great turn out from the ward, the relief Society room was packed full of people. Our investigator Vielka and her kids came for it! The baptism was fantastic and i had the honors of doing it. Elder Chamberlain pulled the card that I was leaving so he wanted me to do it. After the service we had a chapel tour then cleaned up everything.

Sunday Keysa was confirmed. It was also probably the record for how many investigators showed up to church my whole mission also. Vielka and her kids came, Keysa's kids came, Alamine came and Michael stanek came. Elder Chamberlain confirmed her and gave the Holy Ghost to her. We were super busy though during church trying to get 100 different things done all at the same time. But we had a great week. 

I truly have loved serving here and serving the Lord! I hope you all had a great week.

Love,

Elder Bentley 

Final Why I Believe

Love this beautiful Temple!

Dear Family!

It's always hard to remember everything that happened this previous week because it's the end of this week but I haven't told you about last week! 

Tuesday after our district meeting I got to exchange with Elder Lee. The same Elder Lee from 2 years ago in the MTC, talk about throw backs! It was great to catch back up and to be together again. We got to go visit with Anik at his work. He works all day but can talk to us as he runs the shop. We visited about his Patriarchal Blessing and the importance of getting one. Bishop already gave him the recommend but needed to clarify that for him. It's always exciting to meet with him. He plans to go out to Utah and get back into school, he is tired of living out here and the atmosphere that is around him.

Shortly after that we got to go visit with Keysa at the Harris' home. Sister Harris made a dinner and dessert which always is delicious! It is nice that the members are taking her under their wing and are so willing to fellowship her. We talked about the first half of the commandments with her and she seemed prepared to live them. I love asking the young Harris boys to share their thoughts, children bring in such a sweet spirit. She is looking forward to the 22nd for her baptism!

Wednesday morning we met with Fortunat. I always have loved meeting with him, his positive attitude can cheer up the worst of days. We talked with him about saying the closing prayer at Why I Believe this Sunday. He was pretty excited. He is coming along well and trying to get work off so he won't be tired on Sundays for church. I truly am thankful for the opportunity see his conversion. 

Shortly after we met with Vielka and her kids. We have been working with them to try and get them to read the Book of Mormon. Elder Lee and I read Ether 3 with them and illustrated the story. Vielka was very thankful for our willingness to help her kids learn how to pray. We invited her for a chapel tour later in the week but she wasn't able to make it.

Friday morning we finished going over the commandments with Keysa. Her two daughters joined in and want to get baptized August 5th! We will help them work towards that day. It was a strange lesson to invite them at because we were trying to teach the law of tithing to Keysa and the girls wanted to sit in. We had the Vogels there with us for that lesson and it was great to have them. How thankful I am to have the Vogels here in the area!

Sunday evening we had Why I Believe. It was my last one. Because of this Sister Johnson asked me to play the special musical number for it. When we had gotten there one of the recent convert testimonies cancelled so they asked Fortunat if he would like to do it. He said he would be excited to give it. He was nervous about talking in English but really did a great job! The spirit was very strong. The guest speaker was Robert Bushman and his wife. He is a sealer up in Manhattan and has some historical background or something.

Anyway it was a great week! The time surely does fly by quickly, but we are looking forward to the future days!

Love,

Elder Bentley

Summer Heat

A Great Day at the Temple! Elder Bentley and Elder Chamberlain

Fortunat at the Temple 

Us with the Agwu kids and brother Agwu 

 

Dear Family!

Well this has been a fantastic week! Everyday had something to look forward to. That just made this week fly by! Time is running out, and there are lots we still need to do.

Tuesday, the morning started off with a ward breakfast. It was the bishopric that took care of that. You could tell they had everything down to a science. It was hilarious walking into the church and seeing a bunch of older men cooking pancakes and French toast. But there was a great turn out, Keysa and her kids also came. There were a lot of unfamiliar faces so the whole motive behind it worked. Shortly following the breakfast came District meeting. It was Elder Chamberlain's first meeting that he ran. He did a pretty great job. Following the meeting we met Elder Vogel and went to go do some service for Keysa. She had some wooden fences that needed to be taken care of. In Utah we would've just thrown them onto a trailer and took it to the dump, but out here it's not that easy. We had to cut everything down and built a wood stack so they will have some firewood for their pit.

Wednesday morning we were supposed to meet with Fortunat but he was asleep. Not by accident though. The Lord needed us to knock some doors around his home to find a family right up the road. The Lady told us to come in and told her kids to come and listen to us. We had a great lesson with them and got on our way. The Lord knew they needed to be found. Later that evening we went to the Temple visitor Center with Keysa and her kids. The sister missionaries had a little tour/ lesson planned out in hopes to get the kids more interested in the gospel. As far as we can tell, the two daughters are showing willingness to get baptized so we will have a good visit this coming week with them. How thankful I am to have a temple so close and to have the utilities in the V.C. to teach.

Thursday evening we went and had a family home evening with the Centeno and Lee family. Roger and Dolly live with sister Lee and she has been pretty bold with them about the gospel. It has been nice for us to be bold with them and to tell them how it is. They seem to be coming along, just medical appointments and work get in the way. We will see what we can do to help them progress. They fed us a nice Filipino meal. They had some Lumpia, it's like a spring roll, but better. I am quite fond of most of the Filipino food that I have had on my mission. We invited them to read and pray daily in hopes this will encourage them to continue on the investigating path. They are blessed to live with members who are willing to answer their questions and to give support to them.

Friday evening we had our interviews with the Johnsons. Also we had the Agwu's baptism. Everything worked out pretty well. Interviews were running a bit late so that gave us a chance to fill up the font in a way that the water would be warm. The hot water heater dispenses all the hot water quickly so you constantly have to turn the font on and off so it will be warm. The baptism was very well attended. Ume and Ugo were both baptized so that made everything complete. They were both super excited about getting in the water! Then afterward we had our interview finally. Everything worked out and we got through the night.

Saturday we met with Fortunat. Even better we went up to the temple with him to do baptisms. The recent convert temple trip allows them to walk in through the front door of the temple and down the side staircase. But they get to see the huge mural that is at the end of the bridge. We got to be the witnesses and it was great watching how excited he was to be baptized for his father. It made it even more special to him because his father died 17 years ago to the day. It defiantly was a night we won't forget!

Sunday we got to meet with a couple of people. First we met with this newer guy we found, Nathan. He goes to an Episcopal church and has a true desire to find out truth. The only problem we are having is he has this wall of skewed opinions on the church and everything that makes it hard to teach for his understanding. At this point all we can do is pray for his heart to be softened. Following that we went over to the Smith home again. We taught Melissa another new member lesson. We had a great visit with them and afterward brother Smith grilled up some burgers and brots. They also made some stuffed jalapeños wrapped in bacon which were amazing! 👌🏽

We have been so blessed to be here in this area, especially with the work continually moving forward. I am blessed to be with Elder Chamberlain and to spend my last transfer with him. The time is flying and we are wrapping up all the loose ends.

Love,

Elder Bentley 

Happy Independence Day

Saying bye to Elder Rowley

Dear Family,

We had to say goodbye to Elder Rowley, and frankly that was pretty sad. He was the missionary that I've spent the most time with that was never my companion. But that was about the only sad thing that happened this week. 

Monday evening we were able to go and visit with the Agwus. We are teaching their kids, and they are set for baptism this week, but we took time to visit with the Parents. Sister Agwu cooked us a nice Nigerian meal and it was, to say the least, pretty good. It's been a while since they stopped going to church, but Brother Agwu has been coming pretty regularly. It was nice to spend some time visiting with them. We got the call there that we both would be staying. President also asked Elder Chamberlain to be District leader, and told me to guide him on this course. It will be a phenomenal transfer.

Tuesday we got to go and visit with Gerelle. They just had their baby so that was pretty exciting. We were grateful they let us into their home to visit with him and to help him move along the path. We talked about getting to the temple to do baptisms for the dead and family history work. It was great to see this light turn on where he is feeling the joy and excitement of doing family history work. We will hopefully get him to go do baptisms this coming Saturday. At church he was ordained to the office of a priest and given the Aaronic Priesthood, so we are excited for him. 

Wednesday was transfers, but as said above, we both stayed. It was quite the great way to start off. Sister Lee, a Filipino member, has these two others living with her. She is really great about sharing the gospel and felt prompted to sit down with them and to talk about the gospel. We were there last week and that led to us visiting with them this week. We taught the restoration and they both loved it. We extended a baptismal invitation and they accepted, but we need to find a date where they will be available for it. And there are some bumps on the log to smooth out. But we had a powerful lesson with Dolly and Roger.

Following that we got to go teach Keysa. She is coming along very well! We talked with her about the Plan of Salvation and she thought it was great. Didn't have any problems with it and is more than ready to accept it as the plan for her. We will be going over Tuesday to do some service for her so we pray we can talk with her two oldest boys as we do it. The night ended with us visiting the Harris family. It was a good chance to talk about missionary work and they things they can do to help us out. They are that family who are completely geared in the gospel and missionary work. They have had every member in their home for dinner at least once. They are on top of things.

Friday morning we got to go visit with Anik. He is a recently returning member who was baptized a few years ago. He got scheduled to work on Sundays so it has been hard for him to get to church. His boss is letting him have time to go, to church and everything. We talked with him about Family history and temple work. He has a name to take to the Temple and we are working with him to get him there. He had his Aaronic Priesthood interview on Sunday so that was fantastic. He will get there! That evening we got to the Agwu's home again so they could have their baptism interviews. The Zone leaders met us there so we could have them. We got there and Brother Agwu was gone, but thankfully he was only 20 Minutes away. They both passed and we are good for the baptism!

Saturday was an interesting day. We met with Eryn, a girl we tracted into last week. We talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon and the priesthood with her. We read in 2 Nephi 31 and helped her see the importance of it all. It was a good lesson, struck up lots of conversation between ourselves about teaching throughout my mission. Later that afternoon these huge thunder clouds rolled in out of nowhere. Next thing we know, the rain was pouring down on us!! We were completely soaked, so we just kept going on knocking doors. We eventually dried off and during dinner got to change into warm dry clothes. That was quite the experience.

Sunday was a great end to the week. We say Keysa at church with her kids which brings joy to us! After church we met with a new lady Ashley, for the first time. She loves the Book of Mormon and was just intently listening to everything st we had to say. It was a great lesson with her. We invited her to be baptized on August 5th so we pray that can go through. That night we went to teach Melissa one of her new member lessons. We got to visit with Brother Smith and Sister Smith. They have been busy with military related things so it was nice to sit down with them and talk about how things have gone. 

It has been a fantastic week. How blessed I am to be part of this work and to see everything move forward in it! 

Love,

Elder Bentley 

June 26

I found a $10 bill this week!

Dear Family!

First off thank you for all the birthday wishes! This week has quite the turn of events. Some would say it was a "Sick" week. But I'll leave that up to your judgement.

Monday evening we were able to visit with Keysa, she had some more basic questions about the church so we started her on the discussions. At the end of the restoration, it was great because she already knew a lot of the story of Joseph Smith and his importance. The spirit was very strong throughout the lesson and we invited her to baptized on the 22nd of July. Hopefully we can help her children make a date soon after. She had some initial concerns but she talked about the last couple of weeks since we've been meeting it seems like she has had more patience in working with her coworkers. Then she related it back to how it was soon after we started visiting with her that more patience came. She is already reaping in blessings of the gospel.

Tuesday I started to develop a sore throat. But that didn't stop us from going out to work. After our district meeting we went out tracting near a former. This man from South Carolina was outside and waved us over. I guess about 15 years or so ago he was a navy seal. He just so happened to be stationed on Hill Airforce Base which was when he first met Mormons. Nothing too impactful, but seeds were planted. He was more than willing to start reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. A few houses down we ran into another lady who said she would love to hear the message. After which she said we could come back and we hope to visit her again this week.

Wednesday and Thursday my sore throat led to a cold. But we still went out finding both days. Thursday evening we met Elder Vogel and went to visit with Keysa again. She is serious about joining the church and is willing to start trying to live the Word of Wisdom. We will give her about a week and a half so she can cut down on her use, but we hope by then she will be ready to live it completely. I love taking Elder Vogel out with us because he has such a strong testimony of the gospel. He was able to relate to her situation and it was a powerful visit.

Friday, my birthday. I was on exchange with Elder Criddle here in Capitol. We went and worked hard to find some more people to teach. The morning started off teaching Ogechi a new member discussion though. It has been a while since we've been able to talk with her, but we will get these lessons out of the way. Sister Vogel made me some strawberry trifle bless her heart! It was pretty delicious, but there's no trifle like the home trifle. Later that afternoon we found ourselves tracting, my cold was starting to peak, and we tracked into Eryn's home. I guess she has been searching for some more solace in religion. We talked with her about the gospel, about the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and invited her to be baptized. We didn't see her at church though so we will go follow up with her.

Saturday I just had congestion and a pretty bad cough. We had lunch with Bishop Hoyle and he talked to us about things he wants done in the ward. We will see what we can do to fulfill those callings. We got out to work and visited with a less active at work. He is trying to work the most he can so he can go out to Salt Lake City in December for school. He is also from Bangladesh. Oh the people you meet out here!

The week came to a close as we saw Keysa and her family and church and the Agwu kids! We are now anxiously waiting to see what will happen for transfers tonight praying that we both will stay this last one!!

Love you all!

Elder Bentley